Overview of the destination
Shirdi is the home of Sri Sai Baba. He was spotted there for the first time sitting below the neem tree. His Samadhi and the place where he used to sit and solve the problems of his devotees is also located in the shridi temple complex.Food, sight-seeing and shopping
There are a lot of good resturants serving every type of food. I especially liked Sai Yatri's food (slightly away from the temple, close to the bus stand) because of its cleanliness and hygiene factor. Most of the other restaurants also provide really delicious food, so there is no need to worry about the meals.
For shopping, I would recommend the sai baba marble stones with colourful dress (looks life-like), and the lamination photograph (costs around 40 rs) depending on the dimensions of the photograph.
Other things available for purchase include key rings, lockets, books, finger rings, bracelets. I would recommend the audio music should be downloaded from the website of sai baba sansthan as it is freely available and in original, instead of purchasing it from the shops. Activities & things to do
The temple complex has sai baba samadhi in the main temple, museum, abhishek pooja at three times during the day, samadhi of sai baba's devotees, the neem tree, dwarkamai, donation counter, prasad counter, temples of ganesh, shani devta, shiv - all inside the temple compound. The pilgrims can also do mukdarshan (if they want to avoid the crowd and still see sai baba main statue). There is aarti at three different times - morning, noon, and evening. Though it is in Marathi, I would recommend even sai devotee to attend at least one of them as it is heavenly. Travel tips, How to reach, travel warnings etc.
Shirdi is 15 kms from Kopargaon and around 60 kms from Manmad Junction. It can be reached by road as well as railways. The train to reach the closest rail head that is Kopargaon is Karnataka express 2627/ 2628. The auto charges Rs 150 approx for the entire auto, else it charges Rs. 20 per passenger from Kopargaon to Shirdi. However, from Manmad there are buses as well as private taxis. Our taxi (black and red maruti omni) charged Rs 500 from Manmad to Shirdi one way. I have visited twice in the last five months and did not face any problems related to commuting to Shirdi, my last visit being in July 2008. |
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